I'd like to downconvert ALAC audio files with a sample rate of 96khz down so I play them on my mobile phone. Is it possible to use XLD (Mac OS X 10.6.8) by setting it up to convert the input files (ALAC) to ALAC at i.e. 44,1khz?

Do I lose quality this way, is there an easier way?Thanks for your time & help

XLD can probably do that. IIRC, it uses coreaudio for ALAC transcoding. As for quality... that's subjective and depends on many things. You'll definitely be losing audio information, but you should try it and judge for yourself regarding quality. I would surmise that you won't notice a difference, especially on your mobile phone, but this forum is a place where throwing around words like "quality" without quantifying it is not inline with the rules of conduct.

Do you need lossless files on your phone? Assuming you’re using headphones, it may be unnecessary; if you’re playing them through the speaker, definitely so! If lossless is unnecessary, you could convert to lossy with resampling as part of the process. If for whatever reason you did decide to use ALAC, you’re obviously under no obligation to delete the original files and can keep them for the sake of archival, peace of mind, etc.

Do you need lossless files on your phone? Assuming you’re using headphones, it may be unnecessary; if you’re playing them through the speaker, definitely so! If lossless is unnecessary, you could convert to lossy with resampling as part of the process. If for whatever reason you did decide to use ALAC, you’re obviously under no obligation to delete the original files and can keep them for the sake of archival, peace of mind, etc.

At some point I decided to rip my cd's only lossless and started recording some of my favourite vinyls too (these above 44.1 khz). For the sake of being able to play every audio file on every player (including my mobile phone) I used XLD to downconvert the vinyl rips to 44.1 khz.